The Assassin and the Psychic
by BlueBoxForever
Summary: If Bucky thought the world didn't have any more surprises for him he was wrong. Read as he befriends a young psychic hiding from the world in the Canadian Rockies, argues with her mischievous mentor and finds out he was once a mentor himself. Pre Age of Ultron Post CA:WS, NOT Bucky x OC, Uses ideas and characters from A LOT of marvel movies so it's going to live here.
1. Of Grizzlies and Psychics

**AN: This replaces my previous story (which could barely be called a story) of The Power of a Friend. Much thanks to Britt30 who got me to write this and helped with editing.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel characters I just like to imagine.**

Navigating the Canadian Rockies by yourself with no map to speak of is generally a stupid thing to do. At least it is if you care about where you're going. Luckily for him James Buchanan (Bucky) Barnes did not care in the slightest where he was, as long as Hydra wasn't there as well. That frame of mind was the reason he was in the middle of nowhere with only some beef jerky and dried fruit for food.

Bucky was on high alert. Someone had been following him for at least 3 miles. It was hard to tell exactly how long they had been following him because he would hear something and then it would disappear for several minutes before he could get a good look at what or whoever it was. He had just entered an area of forest where the underbrush had thinned slightly when he heard something skittering along a tree trunk. He turned quickly to see what it was. The only thing he saw that could have made the noise was two squirrels chasing each other up the trunk of some type of pine tree. He relaxed ever so slightly at the absence of another person.

He faced the direction he had previously been walking, only to find his path blocked. If he had been the type to stumble backwards he would have. Hanging upside down by her knees from a sturdy branch ten feet off the ground was a girl with auburn hair that was in an elaborate crown of braids. She had grey blue eyes that somehow held knowledge that was far beyond her years. She appeared to be no more than twenty. Bucky could tell that even by the strange fashions of this century, this girl was dressed peculiarly. As limited as his knowledge of this sort of thing was he was sure it wasn't normal for anyone to wear a grey green mottled cloak.

Bucky glared suspiciously at her. She tilted her head in puzzlement before asking, "Are you a hobo?"

"No." He stated hoarsely. It was the first time he'd spoken in at least two weeks. He maneuvered around the odd, but in his professional opinion not dangerous, girl, intent on continuing on his meandering way. He sighed internally as he heard her drop to the forest floor and skipped ahead of him. She started walking backwards so she was facing him. Bucky was mildly impressed she hadn't tripped on something. She was grinning at him happily.

"I was just kidding about you being a hobo, all though frankly you do smell like one." Bucky glared at her again ignoring the comment. He was perturbed that his death glare seemed to have no effect on this overly chipper young woman. "I know who you are, sort of, if you could call it a name. You're The Winter Soldier."

Bucky stiffened, his flesh hand dropped to his waist to grasp the handle of one of his many knives.

"Wow. I'm honestly a little surprised you didn't try to shoot me or something, given your reputation." The girl seemed genuinely impressed.

Bucky blinked once before replying gruffly, "I'm trying to move past that response."

"Good for you," she acknowledged sincerely.

"How do you know who I am?" Bucky huffed as he crossed his arms and glared at her some more.

"Don't you have any other responses but glaring at me?" Bucky kept glaring. "Sheesh, Mr. Grumpy. I knew because I'm psychic." Bucky raised one skeptical eyebrow.

"Psychic? That's what you're going with?

"It's the truth, you'll see." Bucky grunted and changed direction so he was walking away from the clearly delusional girl. "You'll see!" she shouted after him. "Don't say I didn't warn you when you get attacked by a grizzly in a few hours!"

Line Break

Four hours later, an extremely disgruntled Winter Soldier had two less bullets than he started the day with. He was now following the girl's very obvious tracks intent on demanding how on earth she knew that he would unknowingly get in between an angry male grizzly and his dinner. The girl's small fire was so easy to find in the twilight it was laughable.

"I was hoping you'd show up soon. I was going to start eating without you."

"How," he demanded, looking sharply to the left where the girl was calmly walking alongside him, "do you keep sneaking up on me?"

"Practice. One of my hobbies is sneaking up on someone who knows every trick in the book; come to think of it he probably invented a few of them himself." She giggled briefly at her own private joke. "Let's eat, I'm hungry. That bear attacked you over an hour ago. I thought you'd get here sooner." She pouted. "Why did it take you so long to get here anyways?" Her demeanor was no longer pouting.

"Why don't you tell me, since you're the supposedly psychic one?" Bucky retaliated as he grudgingly took the bowl of stew the girl handed him. He did not however eat its contents. She saw his hesitancy and rolled her eyes.. She leaned over and snitched a piece of meat from his bowl popping it into her mouth. After she had swallowed, she questioned,

"There. Satisfied it's not poisoned or drugged?"

"No."

"Fine, don't eat. Even though this is the first real food you've had since you started wandering around my mountain." She shrugged her indifference as she dug into her own bowl with gusto.

"I'm pretty sure you don't own this mountain"

"Not officially, no, but I know this mountain better than anyone else, I think I have the right to call it mine." She defended her claim with an air of having done it many times before.

"Whatever. That's not important what's important is how you knew I was going to be attacked by a grizzly. If I wasn't the Winter Soldier I would be dead."

"First things first. This afternoon I knew you were The Winter Soldier because I had a vision of this conversation happening last night. You just said who you are. And as for the grizzly, this morning I saw a man with a metal arm walking away from a grizzly's corpse. She gestured to his prosthetic. "You don't meet many people with metal arms up here, especially two in one day so I knew the guy walking away had to be you as well."

"Even If I did believe you, which I don't by the way, how could you know when these things you see happen?"

The girl pondered her choice of words for a moment before replying "I guess it's like there's a time stamp on each of them. I know the date, time and location of every vision."

Bucky pressed a hand to his face in frustration. "Just when I thought the twenty-first century couldn't get any weirder."

"Ten bucks says you're wrong, it's going to get a lot weirder"

She stood up from her portion of the fallen tree they were both perched on. "Do you want more stew?"

"I haven't eaten any of the first bowl you gave me."

"You sure about that?"

"Yes I'm sure I would have noticed if-"

Bucky looked down genuinely surprised to see that he had apparently eaten the stew he'd been given. The young woman just smirked at him.

"Told ya you needed real food." She smiled and took the empty bowl from him. She returned it full to the brim with more stew. With his mind actually focused on the food this time he was even more shocked he hadn't realized he'd eaten the first bowl. The stew was the most delicious thing he'd ever tasted. Even if he hadn't been living off of jerky and dried fruit for five days. He ate three more bowls before his stomach was satisfied.

After Bucky had finished eating he realized he'd been forgetting something important. "What's your name?"

"Arianna. You can call me Ari or Anna or make the effort to say my full name. For some reason most people have trouble saying the whole thing, I think they're of the opinion it's too old fashioned" She shrugged. "What's your name? Because The Winter Soldier isn't much of a proper name."

Bucky had to think about that for a second. _What is my name now? It's not Bucky anymore. I don't deserve that name. At least not yet. James? No I hate that name… _"You can call me Barnes."

"Well Mr. Barnes, it is a pleasure to meet you" She held out her hand. Bucky hesitated for a second before shaking it.

"The pleasure's all mine, Miss Arianna."

Arianna peered around their little camp site. The light was almost completely gone now. She muttered to herself for a bit. Bucky thought he saw her eyes turn green in the firelight. She looked to the sky dismally. "I wish I'd known there wouldn't be enough light to make it home". She sighed. "Sleeping outside it is then. If that arm doesn't do well in water you're going to want to cover it. It's going to rain tonight."

"There isn't a cloud in the sky" Bucky objected

She pointed at herself. "Psychic remember?" She continued gloomily "Trust me it's going to rain."

**Reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated.**


	2. How many vines are in the Rockies?

**AN: So I told myself I wouldn't start posting this until I was done with it for the sake of no one being disappointed if it was never completed. I'm 93% sure that I'll finish it so here goes nothing.**

True to Arianna's prediction it did in fact rain that night. The pair of strangers had kept fairly dry thanks to a makeshift shelter constructed from fallen branches. However, it didn't stop them from being cold. When it was finally light enough to see they both gave up on sleep entirely. Arianna rummaged through her pack. "I know there are two apple in here somewhere…" She broke into a triumphant grin. "Ah ha!" She tossed a green apple to Bucky, "Breakfast." They ate their apples quickly, whilst dismantling their little lean to. "When we get back to the treehouse we can get some more food," Arianna said distractedly while checking the contents of her backpack.

"What makes you think I'm coming with you? And where is this treehouse?"

"The treehouse is my home. It's about 7 miles to the southeast. I'm assuming you're coming because you still have questions so you'd probably just follow me anyways. I am going home because I am hungry, tired and cold. And I hate being hungry, tired and cold, especially cold."

Bucky didn't respond.

"I'm going to take that as a stop blathering and get a move on or maybe you've just decided to freeze over into a coma-like state."

At that off-handed comment Bucky visibly flinched. Her words brought feelings of never being warm again, panic, and fear back to the front and center of his mind. Arianna peered confusedly at him for half a second before a look of realization dawned on her face. "I triggered a bad memory. I'm so sorry. If I ever blather on about something you'd rather me not to, just tell me to shut up."

"Noted." Bucky let out a deep breath he'd been subconsciously holding before running his hand over his face. "Alright, I'm fine now."

Arianna's eyes flashed green. A small smile brightened her face. "You will be." She said this quiet enough that Bucky couldn't hear. She hoisted her bag onto her shoulders. "Let's get going then. It'll take a while to get home. The walk is completely uphill." She grimaced slightly. "I wish I knew how to teleport. I should ask if that's possible." She glared at the sky and muttered under her breath "If he'd ever come back that is."

They'd been hiking for half an hour so far in complete silence. Arianna had been exaggerating, It wasn't entirely uphill. Bucky wondered if she just liked complaining, especially  
after he caught her griping about her growling stomach.

"Here." Bucky threw a half empty bag of jerky to her.

She caught it and shot him a grateful look. "Thanks." She took out a stick and munched on it.

Bucky decided to call out the elephant in the room. "If you're psychic why didn't you know you'd get stuck out in the rain? How does it work? Not that I believe you I'm just curious as to how you're going to try to convince me."

"It's hard to explain,"s he replied between mouthfuls of jerky. She thought about her answer for a full minute before addressing his questions. "I usually get random visions. I can look for specific things but that takes more concentration and a good deal of my energy to do. Plus I always end up with a headache if I do it too much. So I don't usually bother with trivial things like getting caught in the rain. How it works is a boring question. The real question is, why? I'll tell you that later. How it works is easy, the random visions just come, my sight tunnels and I see the scene the universe decided to show me at that instant. If you've noticed my eyes turning green that's what's going on."

Bucky nodded a few times digesting this new information. "Alright." he stated simply. For part of the journey Arianna asked Bucky about his story. Correctly interpreting his silence as a desire to not talk about it, she started telling him a story about a prince who went on a long journey to reclaim his honor. After she finished the prince's tale Bucky surprised her by asking.

"Why didn't the prince realize that his father couldn't take his honor from him at the beginning?"

"Because hindsight is twenty-twenty. Plus if he had the story would have been completely different."

They crossed over a small stream and came to a dead end as far as Bucky could tell. They were surrounded by vine covered cliffs on three sides.

"I assume the entrance is hidden?"

"Yup." Arianna swept aside a curtain of vines to reveal a sturdy looking door set into the cliff. Her back hid what her hands were doing. Bucky thought he might have seen a small flash of light before she stood back and the door swung open. The psychic and the soldier went through the small tunnel.

When Bucky emerged and stepped back into the light all he could do was stare. Arianna spread her arms out as if showcasing the scene. "Welcome to the Treehouse."

They stood in a small valley, created by the steep cliffs on all four sides. It was filled with towering pine trees, underbrush, ivy, and who knew what type of animals. On the far cliff, Bucky could see a shining waterfall cascading down the hundred foot wall. He could also hear a river running nearby that must turn into the stream they had crossed before. Despite all this beauty around him, it was the thing in front of him that held his attention.

In one word, it was impressive. And Bucky hadn't been impressed in a long time.

A few more adjectives that ran through his head were stunning, magnificent, and how-the-heck-did-she-build-this.

The tree in front of him could not have been natural. It was a huge oak tree that towered at least sixty feet in the air and would've taken five of him to reach all the way around. It was in a clearing with about five feet of clear space surrounding it on each side. There was a vegetable garden next to a large boulder on the left side of the tree.

Then there was the thing _in _the tree. Arianna may have called it a treehouse, but that did it no justice. A beautiful two story wooden building sat in the branches, looking like it had grown there.

_Maybe it did, _thought Bucky.

Two balconies encircled the building; one on the first floor and one on the second.

"Well, you coming?"

"How are we supposed to get all the way up there?"

"Like this," she placed her hand over a spot on the trunk free of knots or anything really to mark a button. The moment she did a rope ladder unfurled from the bottom balcony.

On the opposite side of the treehouse from the rope ladder was an inconspicuous door that blended in so well Bucky didn't even notice it until Arianna opened it. Once through the door the psychic tossed her bag without looking onto a huge pile of blankets, pillows and general warm fuzzy things and headed straight for a cupboard on the far wall. While she rummaged through it looking for something Bucky took in his surroundings. On the other side of the room, directly across from the door was a spiral staircase heading to the second floor. Directly to the left of the doorway was a small kitchenette. A round table and two chairs sat to his right, with a perfect view out the window. Overall, it just felt very friendly. He passed the table and pile of fuzzy things to his right, to get to the stairs. He peered up then glanced at Arianna.

"Oh, you can go up there if you want. Just don't go in the curtained off area," she said. Bucky nodded and headed on up.

The second floor had a slightly classier feeling than the first floor. On the far wall was a beautiful grand piano next to a large window. To his right was the curtained off area and to his left was a wall of cabinets which he assumed were storage. Somewhat cautiously, Bucky approached the piano. With his flesh hand he pressed a key, eliciting a sweet note. A little braver this time, he pressed another key. Somewhere in the back of his memory, a song began to play.

Arianna came up the stairs with something in her hand and had to stifle a giggle at the ex-assassin playing Mary Had a Little Lamb.

"It's funny how music sticks in our heads when nothing else will," she commented sagely.

Bucky stopped playing immediately. He hadn't heard her come up the stairs. "Do you ever make noise when you move or is that just your natural state?" he said frustratedly.

"It became a natural state." She shook away a forlorn thought. "Anyway, you're going to need this." She held a leather cuff out to him.

"Why?"

"It's one of the ways I protect my home from invaders. Anyone not wearing one doesn't stay very long." She pulled her sleeve up slightly to reveal that she wore one to.

"How so?" Bucky took the cuff dubiously, but didn't put it on his wrist.

"How to explain... As you probably noticed this area isn't natural, not just how the tree grew around this place, the whole valley is too green to be natural. The thing that keeps this place pristine also has a way of dealing with invaders. If someone were to come in here with malicious intent they would find themselves hopelessly lost as soon as they crossed the stream. Anyone else finds themselves at the bottom of the mountain and they think that this valley was part of a crazy dream. Long story short just wear the cuff."

"Fine," Bucky muttered. He snapped the cuff closed over his right wrist. Together they descended the stairs Arianna led Bucky to the counter under the window where she left a half loaf of bread, lettuce tomatoes and some sort of sliced meat. "Sorry I don't have any cheese, goat cheese is disgusting so I don't bother to make it." Ari quickly threw together four sandwiches and handed three of them to Bucky.

"You know how to make cheese?"

"I have a lot of time on my hands being a hermit who lives by herself and avoids normal people."

"How long have you been living up here? You don't look older much older than 20…"

Arianna laughed at some private joke. "I think we've gotten to the "here's my story, what's yours?" part of this relationship," She took a seat at the table. "Would you feel more comfortable if you shared first or if I do?"

"You first." Bucky spoke almost before Arianna finished.

She smiled knowingly. "Thought so. Alright, my story."


	3. Backstory Backstory Backstory!

**AN: Hi! sorry for the long wait... AP tests suck. Maybe, just maybe I'll update regularly over the summer... we'll see. Hope you enjoy. I don't own these characters or marvel if I did a certain someone wouldn't have died in a certain recent movie *pointed glaring* Secondly it was just pointed out to me that I uh forgot to include Ari's story it was typed and everything I just forgot to add it in sorry...**

"First of all you need to know what happened in 2012. Did you hear anything about the Battle of New York?"

"No, before the final mission the last time I was out of cryo freeze was before 2012"

"Ok, this story just got a lot longer…" Arianna told Bucky about how the gods of Norse mythology were in fact aliens from another planet and the legends were based on real people. She explained that in 2011 one of them had caused a ruckus in New Mexico. It took her two hours, but eventually she had told Bucky the entire story of the Battle of New York. She had however left out an important fact. The name of the Asgardian that led the attack.

"Alright, so how bad are you freaking out internally right now?"

Bucky's face spoke louder than words that Arianna had just given him one heck of an information overload. He blinked a few times. "I can see why nobody told me any of that…" He sat back in his chair put his hand to his chin. "So let me get this straight. Aliens are real, and some of them are the gods of Norse mythology. One of said aliens joined forces with other aliens to take over the Earth and to get the cube that powered all of Hydra's weapons in the forties? Then a bunch of supposed heroes got together to stop the invasion including Steve and Howard Stark's son?"

"Yeah, that about sums it up."

"... And I needed to know that to understand your story?"

Arianna sighed heavily "Yeah you do. I should write a book about my life it'd be easier." She thought for a moment. "That would be a huge book." She shrugged "Anyways, my story. The Tesseract is one of six powerful stones that make up the Infinity Gauntlet. If someone were to possess all six stones they would have the power to destroy the universe."

She paused, thinking. "In reality if you were clever enough you could do it with just two. That doesn't matter. The six stones are Space, Mind, Soul, Power, Reality and Time. Each has ridiculous power over their namesake. The Time Stone is the cause of my story." She stopped again. "This might sound even crazier than the Battle of New York, just warning you now." Deep breath Arianna. "My mother was the Time Stone's keeper. She was also Asgardian. When she was pregnant with me she would wear the stone, that's why I'm psychic. The Stone posses incredible power. The user can speed or slow time, see the future, or in rare cases the past, age themselves or keep themselves young."

"So could the user also travel in time?"

"Theoretically? Yes. But these stones can only be used to their full extent by extremely powerful beings such as Thanos. Plus we were warned against it by another time traveler who uses a different method. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes."

"Good. I grew up fairly normally as an Asgardian child. I never knew where my father came from just that he died and it broke mom's heart. My mother died when I was 112. I'd really prefer not to talk about her death so I'm going to skip ahead. I found myself suddenly the keeper of the Time Stone with no family, disgraced from my village on Asgard because everyone decided that my mixed parentage was good enough reason to kick me out. So they said that I was no longer worthy to be in their presence or something stupid like that and I was suddenly in need of a new home. So I ended up on Earth, this was about 1550 AD, I was alone and naive I wandered around the globe trying to relearn to control my abilities now that I had possession of the Stone. My wanderings led me to the fairly young country of Russia, ruled then by Ivan the Terrible. Because I was an idiot and was careless with my ability, he learned of it and I was forcibly taken to his court. For a few years it wasn't that bad. The Tsar was doing a decent job ruling the country by himself, but suddenly he had a psychic to tell him what was a good idea and what wasn't. I still got to walk around the Royal Compound even if I wasn't allowed to leave or speak to anyone but the Tsar. Then his wife died. I didn't see it coming, otherwise it could have been prevented. He blamed me, and I found myself a full fledged prisoner. He demanded to know the outcomes of battles and other horrible fates which would come to his enemies if he positioned his military in this or that place. I would rebel by telling him useless things like, 'If you continue on your current path you will find yourself at the bottom of the stairs' and stuff like it. That carried on for 24 years of occasionally interrupted solitary confinement and then Loki found me."

"Who's Loki?"

"Loki is also from Asgard, he was on Earth gathering supplies for a prank. He used to pull pranks literally all the time. One day I was just sitting in my cell thinking about how to annoy the Tsar without being executed when he burst into my cell and covered my mouth so I couldn't speak. Barely two seconds later, five or so of the royal guards ran right past my cell. After they had gone he let me go and I demanded that he explain. He, of course, didn't and instead asked what I was doing locked up when I could have easily broken out. To which I replied, "If it's so easy you do it." So he did."

"We escaped the palace and found a place to hide. He had to get back home so we agreed to meet again. I didn't expect him to keep his word but then a month later I was in Bavaria when he showed up. We became friends and he started to teach me what he had been learning at his home."

"Which was?"

"Magic." Arianna focused on the flower that was in a vase on the window sill. She gently swished her hand in circle and the flower floated over to land in front of her. "You still think the 21st Century can't get any weirder?"

"This has all got to be a crazy dream. I am going to open my eyes and I'll be back at that truck stop in Montana or even worse I'm going to wake up as the Winter Soldier again." Bucky said somewhat desperately.

"Neither of those things are going to happen because this isn't a dream, Barnes."

"And how are you going to prove that?"

Arianna steeped her fingertips and rested them against her lips. "If I showed you documented evidence of the battle of New York would you believe me?"

"It'd be a start."

"Good." She stood up and stretched. "Well that didn't take as much time as thought it would." She headed towards the stairs. "I know its kinda early, I don't know about you but I got practically no sleep last night so I'm going to bed. Feel free to use anything from the pile there are a few couch cushions at the bottom if you want them."

The next morning after breakfast Arianna brought the subject of proving reality up again. "Still want to see some evidence?"

Nod

"Good. Follow me." Arianna grabbed one of the hooks off the wall and went out to the balcony. "Grab a hook, this is way more fun than climbing down the ladder." She called over her shoulder.

Bucky took one and followed Arianna out onto the balcony and watched as she attached the hook onto a steel cable which sloped gently down towards the ground, anchoring a few feet away from a huge boulder. She jumped from the balcony and flew down the cable laughing the entire way. "Come on!" Even if you don't want to have fun I promise it's faster!" she yelled from the ground. Bucky stepped forward to the edge and placed his hook over the wire. He was about to step off when he suddenly wasn't seeing the valley or the cable or Arianna anymore. He was standing on a snowy cliff, other men stood around him setting up equipment.

_Bucky looked over the precipice at the train tracks below. _

"_Remember when I made you ride the Cyclone at Coney Island?" he asked Steve._

"_Yeah, and I threw up?" Steve replied._

"_This isn't payback, is it?" Steve grinned, looking anything but innocent._

"_Now why would I do that?" _

_What happened next was a blur of speed, adrenaline, and bullets. Not to mention a long, long fall..._

"Barnes!" Bucky heard the voice, he didn't know who it belonged to. It wasn't Steve's so whose was it? It called again. "Barnes!" _I'm just going to ignore it and maybe it will go away. _He felt something poke his side. "James Buchanan Barnes! WAKE UP!" the voice shouted directly in his ear. Bucky's eyes flew open and he sat up so quickly that Arianna who had been kneeling beside him jumped back in alarm.

Breathing hard Bucky took in his surroundings. He was confused to find himself on the ground. Not even at the end of the cable. It was like he had fallen from the balcony. But that didn't make any sense. Even enhanced as he was, a forty foot drop straight down should have left him in pain at the very least. He didn't even feel bruised. After processing this he focused on Arianna again.

"Flashback?" she asked concernedly. Bucky nodded. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Bucky hesitated for half a moment before making up his mind. He might as well, she already knew more than anybody but Steve. He took a deep breath. "Right after my last assignment, my head was still a fuzzy. I had a quarter of an idea about who I was. I ended up at a Captain America exhibit in the Smithsonian, trying to learn more about this Bucky person who was stuck in the back of my head. The exhibit didn't help much, all it talked about was how close Steve and I had been as kids. It didn't even say how I died, just when and that it was in service of my country." He scowled and looked Arianna straight in the eyes. "For a good chunk of the past 70 years America and it's ideals were the enemy. The people I was sent to kill, the majority of them were American." He dropped his gaze to the ground again focusing on the fallen leaf he had slowly been shredding. "In the flashback I saw my memories of when I died. Steve and I had been sent to capture the Hydra's lead scientist. Zola." He spat out the name like it was deadly poison. "Zola was the twisted maniac who did this to me. That's not the point anyways, the point is Steve and I got to the train by ziplining down to it, a lot like your mini one. I remembered falling from that train then darkness and pain. But any memory of being Bucky is welcome at this point. I still don't know who I was though. Really all I know about myself is Steve is my best friend."

Arianna nodded once slowly, digesting this information. "That sounds… horrifying. I'm sorry you had to go through that. Figuring out your past is the best thing you can do for yourself now. So here's my question; If you really want to find out more about yourself, why haven't you talked to Steve?"

"Last time I saw Steve… I tried to kill him."

"Based on what I know about Captain America, I don't think he'll care."

"He won't, the punk's probably trying to find me right now. But it's not whether he'll care, it's because I care. I don't want to talk to Steve until I have a clearer picture of my own head. Honestly I'm afraid of reverting back to their programing. I don't want to be their or anybody else's tool ever again."

Arianna rose to her feet and offered her hand to help Bucky up. He ignored it. "I still want to show you what we originally came out here for, if that's OK with you." She started to walk away before Bucky called her back.

"Wait. I just fell forty feet. I should be dead or at least bruised but I feel completely fine. How?"

Arianna grinned."Magic remember?" She started walking backwards towards the large boulder Bucky had noticed earlier. "Which is why we're going over here."

She walked suspiciously over to the boulder then turned her back quickly. Bucky thought he saw another strange flash of light, when quite suddenly, the boulder rumbled to the side. A dark hole was gaping into the ground. There was a ladder that led down into the hole. Arianna slid down it expertly and then called back up to him, her voice echoed several times.

"Hurry up!" Bucky took a deep breath and followed her into the earth.

Bucky had thought the Treehouse was impressive, but after seeing this place, it was little more than shack.

Shelves and shelves of books stretched into the darkness. They went higher and farther back than he could see. They were lined up on either side of a wide aisle that was littered with couches, lamps, and paved with shining tile that gave off an etheresence kind of glow. Arianna clapped her hands and lights came on throughout the library, making it easier to see.

"Welcome to the Library! I want to show you something real quick." Bucky followed close behind and couldn't help but gape at everything.

"Where on Earth did you get all of these?" The psychic laughed at some hidden joke and replied,

"Let's just say it took a while. Here we are!" She grabbed a thick scroll off of a shelf and carefully pinned one side to the edge of the table, then she began to slowly unwind it.

It seemed to go on forever. About thirty feet later, she pinned the other edge to a different table and came running back.

"Here you go. This is more magic just warning you." She found an entry and tapped it. The words glowed. Less than ten seconds later a thick book entitled _Civil Rights: A History_ was hurtling towards them, It came to a smooth stop on the desk. "You can try it if you like. I'll be right back, I need to check something really quick.

"This isn't convincing me any of this is real." Bucky said resignedly

"You're right this isn't helping, but I'm getting there. I'll be back in less than a minute. Don't wander off." Before the words had left her mouth she was off, darting amidst the stacks of books. Bucky walked down the length of the scroll while searching for some event that looked interesting. As he reached the eighties, Bucky looked around and something caught his eye. At the back of the aisle across from him was a desk. On that desk was a mid sized box with a spotlight right over it.

_Does this girl even know the meaning of subtlety?_ he asked himself.

He glanced around to make sure she really had gone off to another part of the library. Upon closer inspection he noticed the box wasn't so much a box as a small cabinet richly carved with images of lightning, snow, several deer and one lone wolf on the front most panel. Bucky considered opening it when for the third time in two days he was startled by Arianna speaking suddenly behind him. "You have to promise me one thing. Never, open this chest."

Bucky let out the breath that had hitched in his throat when she had come up behind him. "Why, what's in it?"

"A last resort." She blew a layer of dust off the top, lines of strange runes were now visible. "This chest contains the Time stone, I've only opened it once, and that was to put the blasted thing in.

"If you're its keeper, why do you hate it so much?" Bucky asked, sensing the loathing in her voice. Arianna scowled. "Didn't you have to use it to create your valley?"

"No, that was just some extremely complicated spellwork. Loki did most of it. Its mere presence in the valley is what keeps time in a state of flux, plus I can manipulate its power enough to do the maintenance work without actually touching the stone. I don't hate it. I'm scared of what I could become if I exploited its power." _Again _she thought to herself. "I watched it destroy my mother, I don't want the same thing to happen to me."

Bucky said nothing, he just waited for Arianna to begin speaking again.

"I try to stay positive, be a good person and most of all not use the full power of the Stone. If I were to become evil... let's just say it would be really bad for everyone in the universe."

"That's what you're afraid of. Being corrupted and doing things you would never do in your right mind. I can respect that."

" I haven't always been afraid of it. I just hated it because of what happen to my mother." She turned abruptly and headed deeper into the library. "I almost forgot why we're actually down here! Come on!" Her gloomy demeanor disappeared immediately.

Arianna led him to a separate room filled with thousands of newspapers. On a podium off to the side sat a laptop. "I thought you didn't use or like technology." Bucky commented

"Technology is great, I just don't use it because SHEILD and others have an annoying habit of using it to trace people. This is one of very few exceptions. I go on an excursion to the outside world about once a year to get new books. Two years ago I paid someone a ridiculous amount of money to make this especially untraceable." While she was talking she was navigating her way through the vast content stored on the laptop. "Got it!" She stood back so Bucky could see and a news report started playing.

When it was over Bucky didn't say anything. Arianna leaned forward so she could see his face. "Thoughts?" She asked.

"I believe you."

"Oh good." She shut the laptop off and walked out of the room.

"One question." Bucky called. He hadn't moved from where he was standing. Arianna retreated back into the room.

"Which is?"

"Why didn't you say that your friend, who taught you magic and you appear to be in love with-"

"I am NOT in love with Loki!"

"Oh come on, even I can tell you at least have feelings more than friendship towards him. That's not the point though. The point is why did you fail to mention he attacked this planet and caused the death of hundreds if not thousands of people?" He folded his arms determined to get an answer.

Arianna slumped down to the floor leaning against the wall. "Because I have no idea why he did it! It doesn't make sense! The last time I saw him was three years ago, he was planning this elaborate prank to mess with Thor on the day he was supposed to be coronated King of Asgard. No malice, no diabolical plots, just Loki being Loki. Then he showed up in the middle of the night. He was so angry at Odin and at the universe in general. He didn't even tell me why he was so upset. He just ranted and eventually he muttered "born to be a king indeed" and then he vanished. That's when things started falling apart. He never came back after that. I learned what happened through second hand reports." Arianna paused in her rant to catch her breath. "This is what infuriates me the most, it's not in his character. He is the most mischievous person in the universe and has a bit of a superiority complex, but I would never have predicted him to try to kill his brother or take over earth. You accused me of loving him, I did love him, but now I don't know. OK? I just don't know. I love the Loki he used to be but if this is who he really is… A big part of me refuses to believe that this was of his own free will. But none of that matters I'll most likely never see him again or at least not for a very long time."

"Two questions. Why didn't you see this happening with your… your psychicness? And what do you mean if you never see him again?"

"I'll answer the second first. He committed treason, murder, and tried to invade a planet even by Asgard's screwed up laws that's a life sentence. As to the first, the one time I looked into his future I saw him die. I told myself never again and I blocked myself off from his future. I've found that knowing your own or the people you care about's fate is extraordinarily depressing." Arianna had managed to keep her voice steady but should couldn't help the few tears that leaked out the corners of her eyes

"It only took me almost 24 hours but that's my story. Now it's your turn."

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	4. Valley Life

**AN: I know I posted on Monday but I'm impatient to get this out and I might as well while I'm thinking about it so here goes nothing. 6/11/15 Hey um go back and read chapter three I forgot a major story point.**

"I'm betting you're not a man of many words, so bare necessities is fine if you like." Arianna offered three minutes into the awkward silence that had followed her last statement. She could see the decision being made behind his eyes. She was glad when he sat down on the floor across the room from her.

"My full name is James Buchanan Barnes, as you know I am- was the Winter Soldier, Hydra's puppet assassin. My past is pretty hazy, Hydra and the KGB erased my memories of being Barnes. I was always just the weapon or soldier. They'd give me a target and I killed them. Until last April when they sent me to kill Steve Rogers who used to be my best friend." He took a small circular pin out of his pocket and fingered it staring at the patriotic shield. "I started to remember things, they wiped me and sent me to finish the job. Right as I was about to kill him he said something that jogged my memory. At that point we fell into the potomac I dragged him out and started off on my own trying to figure out who I was and who I am now without Hydra or anyone else finding me."

"Well if you're looking for a place to hide this place takes the cake since the there are only two people on this planet who know about it and they're you and me." She tried to sound nonchalant, she really did but Arianna was good at concealing secrets, emotions? Not so much. "You know you could stay here for a bit, It'd be great! You could use the library to catch up on what you missed and I'd have someone to talk to!" She tried to school her features, " I mean if you want to, I guess."

Bucky was surprised to say the least and asked incredulously,"Are you really that desperate for someone to talk to that you'd open your home to a total stranger? A total stranger who is an ex-assassin with some serious issues?"

Arianna, who had been avoiding eye contact, looked up from the floor. "Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been in solitary confinement?"

Bucky nodded

"Remember how I said I was in it for 24 years? The last three have slowly became like solitary confinement. I had my books so that made it a little better, but books can't replace actually talking to someone indefinitely. Recently I decided I had two choices, start talking to myself even more than I usually do and risk going completely insane, or leave my mountain and see how long it would take for SHIELD or someone else to find me. Then you showed up. The way I see it door number three sounds a lot better than one or two."

"I can respect that." He ran a hand by the back of his head, "Plus if I'm being totally honest I've been wanting to be able to talk to someone recently."

Arianna's face lit up like the fourth of July. "Yes!" Bucky looked slightly scared at her exuberance. "This is going to be great!" She jumped up and started running the length of the library toward the exit.

"What did I just get myself into…" Bucky muttered to himself. He wouldn't admit it but he was smiling, just a little.

The following months were strange but also normal in a way. Sure Bucky's days were filled with reading and Arianna teaching him how to cook and other normal things like that. (Bucky was surprised when he discovered Arianna had almost no idea how to fight without magic, he tried convincing teaching her but she waved it off saying something about not needing to since she had magic, which she was lying about, Bucky could tell there was a deeper problem but didn't press.). But there were also the common instances of sporadic magic that were perfectly ordinary to Arianna but always surprised Bucky. Like when Arianna conveniently forgot to mention that there was a Hippogriff named Lola living in a cave in the cliffs surrounding the valley. Bucky's life had never been this idyllic. He didn't have to worry about where he was going to get his next paycheck from, or if Steve was going to have to be rushed to hospital again (He remembered that happening a lot before the war), and he especially did not have to worry about being wiped again. The valley just had a comforting feeling that helped his mind heal.

True to each others word most of their time was spent either reading (catching up on history in Bucky's case) or talking. It was mostly idle conversation about almost anything. They rarely talked about their various issues and when they did it was usually because Bucky had remembered something but not the context. And sometimes they would be sitting in silence for hours until someone (Arianna) asked something strangely specific before falling back into silence. The first time this had happened was two weeks after Bucky decided to stay.

"Does Russian still make sense to you?" Arianna asked

startled Bucky looked up to see her standing in front of him looking frustrated.

"Sort of. If I heard it I'd probably understand it but it's not as easy as it used to be. Not since I started remembering more about my past life."

Her expression cleared up "I thought so." she walked away mumbling to herself her usual trail of books was growing as she summoned more to her. Bucky figured it'd be a while before she emerged from her current research project, and turned back to his own book.

Spring turned to Summer and Summer turned to Autumn which quickly (too quickly for Bucky's liking) turned to winter.

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	5. Bad News

**AN: Hi! Welcome new readers! And for those of you who are following this story you may want to go back and read chapter three I forgot to put Ari's story in so now its there and things should make more sense now. Happy Reading.**

A storm was passing over the mountain it was bringing the first snow to the valley the past 3 weeks had kept Bucky busy in the library and Arianna busy harvesting her garden. Late October found them boarding up any cracks in the walls or floors of the treehouse in an attempt to keep out the cold. The temperature dropped to a point where they were forced to take refuge in the insulated comfort of the library. Bucky was sleeping relatively peaceful for once. The gathering storm clouds seemed to have driven his nightmares away. Arianna on the other hand was tossing restlessly. Her eyelids fluttering, green light flashing out from under them. She called out for Bucky to look behind him. Her shouting woke Bucky, he jumped up and ran to the couch she had claimed.

"Arianna." no response. "Arianna!" he shook her shoulder lightly. "ARI!" She sat up quick as a bullet, if Bucky's reflexes were a fraction slower he would have been punched in the face. "What is it? What did you see?"

"Bucky, you have to leave."

"What?"

"You have to leave right now!" she jumped up off her couch, wrenched on her shoes, grabbed her coat tossed carelessly on the floor and started to run towards the back of the library. Bucky had done the same and caught up with her quickly.

"What? Ari what did you see!?"

"Steve is in danger, or he's going to be."

Bucky's face transformed immediately from one of confusion to unstoppable determination. "Where?"

"Serbia, they were sneaking around an old shop a few miles outside of Belgrade."

"Who is they, and was the shop called Pickney's by chance?"

"Steve was with a black man, he had some tech looking pack, and yes."

Bucky groaned "that shop is a front for a Hydra base. What was he doing there?"

"Probably looking for you." Arianna stopped suddenly in front of an ordinary looking bookcase. She shoved several heavy volumes to the side and pressed her palm the the wood backing. She withdrew her hand and the bookcase slid smoothly to the side revealing another corridor however this one was rough concrete lit by single light bulbs spaced twenty feet apart. She took off running again leading Bucky through a maze of confusing twists and turns they passed hundreds of locked doors and empty doorways that lead nowhere. Finally she skidded to a halt outside of one. "I assume you're not opposed to grand theft jet?"

"Not in the slightest."

"Good. When you go through the doorway close your eyes."

"There's nothing there!" Bucky said impatiently.

"Magic remember? It's a portal."

Together they stepped over the threshold. Bucky felt like someone trying to rip his legs off, the sensation ended abruptly. Bucky opened his eyes and took in his surroundings they were in a small hanger. Sitting in a row was a plane that looked uncannily like the plane the wright brothers had become famous with at kitty hawk, the second was a Northrop P-61 Black Widow, the third was a state of the art quinjet. "You know how to fly one of these right?" Arianna shouted over her shoulder running for the quinjet."

"Yes!" Bucky answered just feet behind her.

It was only after they had been in the air for 20 minutes that Arianna finally explained. "In four hours Steve and his friend will try to infiltrate the base they're going to get caught. Natasha Romanoff is-"

"Who?" Bucky interrupted

Arianna looked annoyed "Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow she's in Serbia she's going to try to get them out when Steve doesn't meet the check in"

Bucky was clearly struggling to remember something "That's… not… her name."

"I know that, her original name was-"

"Natalia Alianovna Romanova" Bucky whispered.

Now it was Arianna's turn to be confused. "I never told you that, how did you know…"

"I think I was the one who taught her."

Her eyes widened "As in, you trained her to work for the KGB?"

Bucky nodded

"As in the Red Room?"

"Yes."

"OK, well, certain things make a whole lot more sense now." She leaned back into the copilots seat again. "Is her being there going to be a problem?"

"No."

Suddenly Arianna gasped and clutched at her wrist. She tore off her cuff and examined the silver runes stitched on the inside, they had turned bright red slightly burning her skin.

"What?"

"Someone's in the valley. You're going to have to come up with your own exit plan. If someone finds the library, that would be beyond horrific." She returned the cuff to it's usual position before asking abruptly "How do you fly this thing? I need to get home ASAP."

Bucky glanced at her confused.

"I know how to fly the Kitty Hawk and the Black Widow, but not this one, I've only had it for a few months."

"One crash course in how to fly a quinjet coming right up. Where did you get the planes from anyway? Or I guess who did you steal them from? And how did you get the quinjet to that hanger if you don't know how to fly it?" He shot her a shrewd look.

Arianna raised her hands in surrender. "The Kitty Hawk was in exchange for telling the Wrights how to make it fly, the Black Widow I salvaged and restored and this one someone snatched in all the confusion of those helicarriers going down in DC and put it on the black market which is where I got it. I paid someone to drop it off and forget about where they put it. So how do you pilot this thing?"

Arianna was a quick learner, which made Bucky's job considerably easier. They had almost reached their destination when her eyes shone green again.

"What now?" Bucky demanded, he was worried about Steve.

"You're going to need to contact me for some reason when this over." She ripped a piece of paper from the little notebook she kept in her pocket. A pen materialized in her hand and she wrote a ten digit number on the paper and handed it to him.

"No one else will be able to read this number and it will only work once. You call me when you need me. Make sure to make the call from where you need me to show up." **AN: fun fact quinjets (according to the Marvel wiki) can go at mach 2.1 which is 1598 mph So it would take them about three hours to get to serbia**

Thanks to the quinjets subsonic speed less than four hours after leaving the hangar outside Edmonton, Bucky was on the ground in Serbia and Arianna was flying back to good ol' Canada. Arianna sprinted through the twisting corridors. The cuff had burned again when she had passed over the east coast, the intruder had entered the treehouse.

When Arianna reached the base of her tree the rope ladder was unrolled hanging serenely in the light of dawn. The intruder had not ascended via the ladder, a grappling hook was embedded in her porch. A grappling hook which had been enchanted to puncture through shield spells apparently. Arianna slipped silently onto the balcony and peered in through the south window. A woman had made herself comfortable in Arianna's favourite beanbag. This woman was clearly from Asgard, based on her armor and dark hair Arianna guessed that this was the Lady Sif, friend of Thor, whom Loki had told her scathingly about. She slid through the window without a sound, she took a seat at the table before clearing her throat.

"Is it the custom in Asgard to enter a person's home when they are not present?"

Sif sprang to her feet and whirled to stare at Arianna. "How did you…?" she murmured. Straightening herself slightly, Sif smirked. "I think you know the answer to your own question, Arethusa No-onesdottir"

"You seem awfully confident in the presence of someone who, according to legend mind you, helped create the foul beasts of the roots of Yggdrasil and so conveniently scattered them throughout time."

Sif's smirk quickly became a sneer, but she said nothing.

"What do you want Sif? Can I call you Sif?" Arianna asked employing a mix of exasperation and sass.

"Oh I don't want anything to do with you, believe me." Sif moved to trail her slender yet calloused fingers across the spines of the books that lined the walls "But I have a message for you."

"Oh yeah? From who?"

"The All-Father"

Arianna choked, looking suddenly terrified.

"I'm glad to see you still have proper-"

"What did he say?!" Arianna demanded jumping to her feet.

"You know it's actually quite an intriguing story about how it was discovered. Some servants were going through Loki's things after we all thought he had perished by falling into nothingness. And they discovered this." She held up a drawing of Arianna.

"He kept it…" Arianna murmured.

"No one recognized that it was in fact of you until recently. The All-Father thought you should have it seeing as Loki won't be needing it anymore."

Arianna took the drawing suspiciously. "And why is that?"

Sif faked a look of surprise. "What? Nobody told you?"

"Told me what?! Arianna growled.

"I am very sorry to inform you, but Loki had been dead for nearly a year."

"You're lying." Arianna whispered

"I am afraid that I am not. I don't see why you care, it's not like he meant anything to you, is it? Who could possibly even like the monster he was?"

Arianna clutched the old parchment with trembling fingers. "Leave. My. Home."

"If you insist." Sif looked to the sky. "Heimdall!"

"Wait!" Arianna shouted. "How did he die?"

For the first time Sif's face was genuine, there was something unidentifiable in her eyes. "He died saving the worlds from Malekith's plan"

The Bifrost opened and Sif was gone.

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	6. Don't Cry -Olivia Broadfield

**AN: Hellooo internet! How are you lovely people? It really makes me happy to see new followers and favorites. I'm not totally sure about this chapter but oh well. I don't own marvel Ari is my brain child though**

Arianna wanted to sink to the floor and sob, like those poorly written damsels in distress. She didn't of course. Instead she calmly and slowly climbed the stairs to the second level and pulled back the black curtain, the one she had instructed Bucky to never look behind.

This was Loki's room, so to speak. There was a cot pushed to the wall, a small dresser and a few random items. Everything was coated in a thick layer of dust, no one had disturbed this space for more than two years. The last time Arianna had been in this portion of her home was after the battle of New York when she had stowed it away. She pried up the floorboard by the foot of the bed and pulled out a simple gold box. She withdrew a small pouch and placed the picture Sif had given her gently on top of the other keepsakes. The pouch contained the thing most precious to her, a ring. The band was gold and intricately braided, the center emerald was surrounded by six smaller onyx stones. Arianna slid it onto her left hand and stared at it for what felt like hours, remembering all the years she had spent with Loki.

There was a custom on Asgard that when a child reached the age when they were no longer considered a child, they crafted a ring. Into these rings they would pour their identities. They are forged with magic so as to reflect exactly the nature of the individual. The magic within them caused them to fit the intended recipient perfectly whereas it would not fit anyone else. When the child was grown they would give this symbol of themselves to the person they cared for most in the cosmos, in most cases this was a proposal of marriage. Not always. Loki gave Arianna his ring barely a month before his disappearance

_Arianna and Loki stumbled into the treehouse barely able to stand from laughter. Arianna flopped onto a pile of pillows while Loki who was slightly more in control managed to make it to the chair. "I can't believe we did that!" She choked out between laughs_."_The look on his face when you said we had escaped from a mental institution and would he be so kind as to not turn us in. Priceless."_

_Loki started to chuckle once again. "And when you told him we talked to fairies on a daily basis and then made one appear…" It was several minutes before Arianna could breathe normally again. The smile that had been prominent on her face vanished. Loki had began reading the book she had left on the table before their excursion, he knew that it sometimes took her a long while to calm down after an adventure. He seemed to sense the change in her attitude. "Aria? What's wrong?"_

"_You have to go back tonight." She muttered sullenly. He came and sat next to her on the mountain of pillows. _

"_I will return, just as I always do." _

"_I know." she tapped her temple. "Just, I've been wanting to talk to you about something and I feel like I'm running out of time, which is ironic because you know the whole keeper of time thing and I was thinking about that earlier and I decided that you know with stuff and things and I'm rambling." Loki smirked. _

"_Yes you are." They shifted into the position they usually took when they were talking, spread out on the pillows holding hands, staring up at the ceiling which they had enchanted to reflect the cosmos. "So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"_

"_It's just a silly question. I was just wondering, last time you talked about how the All-Father was starting to bring up the topic of Thor needing to find a wife. And a long series of thoughts lead me to this question. You know how my brain darts around from one topic to another."_

"_Indeed I do."_

_She half glared at him and took her hand back so she could flick him, "Anyways." She intertwined her fingers in his again "I ended up thinking about the soul rings we all make as we're about to enter adulthood and I came up with this question."_

"_You're beating around the proverbial bush Aria."_

"_And I was wondering If you still have yours."_

"_What? Are you afraid I have a secret lover on Asgard?" he teased._

"_Just answer the question your Royal Annoyingness." Loki retrieved the ring from where he kept it, on a thin leather cord around his neck. She examined it carefully, appreciating the complex weaving in the band that represented his own complexities. _

"_Do you still posses yours?" He asked softly. She seriously considered being sarcastic as he had been, but decided against it, a very small part of her suspecting where this was going. Instead she withdrew hers, also from around her neck. Arianna's ring was a plain silver band with twelve small topaz gems inlaid in the metal._

"_Have you ever thought about who you'll give it to?"_

"_Quite extensively actually, especially recently." He sat up pulling her with him. "Aria?"_

"_Loki." If this was going where she thought it was going..._

_He looked up from their entwined hands, and their eyes met. _

"_I know our relationship is complicated and sometimes difficult, but I love you and…" He withdrew his hand to untie the knot in the leather cord that kept his soul ring there. He held it out to Arianna. "I want you to have this."_

"_What if it doesn't fit?" she worried_

"_It will."_

"_Loki, I love you, but are you sure this is right? I mean you're a prince of Asgard and I've been banished for eternity, for good reason."_

"_You are not that person anymore." His eyes were pleading now. "Please Aria."_

_Blue eyes shone green and Arianna was seeing was seeing their future. The scenes were random and sporadic, never staying long enough for her to find the time stamp as she liked to call it. The two scenes that stuck with her was an idyllic picture of Loki and herself watching two small children building a snowman in the valley, and a scene that would haunt her forever. _

_The green light faded. Back in the present Loki's eyes were amused at her strange power's timing. "See anything interesting?" he mused._

"_Oh yes." She smiled, and held out her left hand allowing him to slip the ring on her finger. Her worries had vanished thanks to the vision. Arianna could lament over the final scene when the time came. If she'd learned anything in her life it was that worrying about the future did no good._

"_Now it's my turn." She untied her own cord, took her soul ring and slid the ring onto the appropriate finger. _

Arianna slowly clawed her way out of the flashbacks and into reality, she was unsurprised to discover her face was streaked with tears.

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	7. The Guy Who Tried To Kill Us?

**AN: Believe it or not originally this story was pretty much this chapter, and then I had a dream about Bucky running into a hermit psychic and this monstrosity of a story was born. Insert usual disclaimer here yada yada yada enjoy**

Bucky was expecting the knife, but it still took every ounce of self control to not block the impending attack. _She needs to think she's in control or she'll never listen to me_, he reminded himself. He was in an alley making his way towards where Arianna had told him to go, when he first saw her following him. A few steps before the line where the street light threw its light she pounced. "What are you doing here Soldier?" she asked in her husky voice. He had a hard time believing that he had forgotten this woman, her voice alone was so distinctive. Mentally cursing Hydra and the people who had done this to him to the deepest pits of hell, he raised his hands in surrender, which was slightly difficult considering the knife she hand pressed against his throat.

"That's not who I am anymore Miss Romanova." She pressed the knife to his skin a little tighter. "I'm here to help Steve."

"How do you know about Steve?"

"I've made some friends in high places since I started running from Hydra." He was true to his promise to keep Arianna a secret.

"Why should I believe you?"

"Doesn't the mere fact that I remember who Steve is count for anything? Or how about that I didn't stop you from digging a knife into my throat. Which you know I could have done easily."

"Oh really?" she asked skeptically.

"I know more about you than you do currently."

"I find that hard to believe." Bucky braced himself, slightly scared of her reaction to the next question. "How much do you remember about the people who trained you in the Red Room?"

He felt her stiffen minutely before she withdrew the knife and stepped back, suddenly preferring to threaten him from a distance.

"What's it to you!?" she demanded.

"I'll take that as a nothing"

"I remember there was one man who actually cared if I lived or died, but they made me forget his face and his name, along with all the other monsters who ruined my life so I wouldn't go after them if I ever went rogue."

"You set up a trigger code so that if you ever found each other you'd remember."

She shook her head. "No way, there's no way that was you. The Red Room was the KGB, not Hydra."

"You were the most promising child they had ever stolen, they thought you could become the greatest in the field and you kept proving them right. So they brought in the best. Hydra was happy to gain a few million dollars."

"Prove it."

"Buchanan 32557038 Dimitri 3816." The memories of their time together came flooding back, countless hours of training, harsh words that prepared her for the life the KGB was shaping for her, and many conversations that lead them to become tentative friends without letting their superiors know it.

Natasha gasped very slightly and whispered the rest of the code. "Alianova 47193 Anastasia 9274."

An almost smile breached Bucky's usually stoic face. "So can we trust each other to not kill each other while we rescue Steve and your flying friend?"

"I think we can manage that." She grinned. "I'd hate to be the one who snatched Sam and Steve."

"Details." They had both transitioned smoothly into work mode. "How did it happen, who did it, and how many of them are there?"

"I bet you can guess the who."

"Hydra." He cursed.

"Bingo. They were following a lead, trying to find you actually, and they ended up here where they stumbled on a Hydra science lab. They tried to destroy it but they had something big enough to prevent Captain America from wiping them off the map."

"And you know this how?"

"I gave Sam a sort of panic button before they left DC; it told me where they were. The rest I've gathered in the few hours since I've been here."

"How'd you get here so fast? Unless you've got a quinjet stashed somewhere."

"I was in Budapest."

"That leaves 'how many of them are there.'"

"I don't know. And I hate not knowing."

"I assume it's just us?"

"Unless you brought backup."

He shook his head. "So it comes back to the basic standby,"

Natasha was smiling widely now. "Strength or Stealth."

"Hurry up." Bucky whispered.

"This isn't as easy as it looks." Natasha scowled. "Twelve dead locks and two 6 digit keypads take a while to unlock. Whoever came up with this door is paranoid." She was on the seventh deadlock.

"There'll be more of them any second." The universe enjoyed toying with them because at that moment five more Hydra agents rounded the corner heading straight for them. Bucky pushed Natasha out of the way so he could get a better angle and ripped the hinges of the door and pushing it into the next room.

"Why?" she demanded crossly, "didn't you do that in the first place."

"They would have heard it."

The two assassins ran down the hallway, occasionally pausing to dispatch anyone who got in their way. They were headed towards the detention block, the location of which had been provided thanks to some quick computer hacking, compliments of Natasha. Finding Sam was easier than it should have been. Mostly because he was shouting insults at the guards running past his cell trying futilely to prevent the Black Widow and the Winter Soldier from rescuing him.

"Take that Hydra scum! Nobody messes with the Black Widow and -" Sam finally got a good look at Bucky. "The guy who tried to kill us?"

Bucky stood guard while Natasha picked the lock. "Uh, Natasha? I know that the whole reason we're in this mess is because we were trying to find this guy, but last time we saw him he was trying to kill us, and you seem to be oddly trusting."

"Yeah sorry about that," Bucky commented as he took aim at the next idiot who had thought they stood a chance.

"You can hug it out later." Natasha quipped. "Where's Steve, so we can get out of here." The lock clicked and the door swung open.

"He's downstairs in the main lab. We busted in through the fire escape. When they realized who we were they let this black cloud thing from a jar and it attacked Steve like it was sentient or something. They're trying to extract the super serum I think."

They fought their way downstairs, when Sam saw something scarring. "What did they do to my wings?!" It was like someone had punched him in the gut. What had clearly once been Sam's precious wings lay dismantled on a workbench.

"Nevermind your wings, we need to find Steve," Bucky reminded him.

They found Steve in a dimly lit room behind another imposing door made not so imposing by Bucky's arm. He was on a gurney repeating the same string of words over and over to himself. "Captain 54985870 Rogers."

"Steve?" Bucky ripped off the straps that confined his friend. Steve turned to look at him sluggishly.

"Is that…"

"It's me, It's Buck."

"Buck…"

"Come on." Bucky helped steve onto his feet

"Buck." Once on his feet Steve stared at Bucky. "I thought you didn't remember."

"I thought you had more sense than to get yourself caught. Now let's get out of here." There was an intense feeling of deja vu with this scene and Bucky was fighting hard to suppress a memory that was trying to resurface because he couldn't afford to black out right now. Steve was leaning heavily on Bucky as they made their escape.

"Please tell me you have an escape plan to get us out of Serbia!" Sam shouted over the deafening sound to ricocheting bullets.

"Of course we have an escape plan!" Bucky shouted back. "Natalia, what's our escape plan?" The exit was in sight now, as they ran past Bucky caught a glimpse of what looked like a golden spear/scepter thing. Bucky filed it away in the back of his mind sensing that it might be important later.

"That's something else you missed by the way, I changed my name to Natasha. New person and all that. As for escape plan, Stark was supposed to be sending a jet." She managed to say all this without sounding the least bit flustered despite the fact that they were being shot at.

"You two know each other!?" Sam and Steve yelled at the same time.

"Long story." The assassins answered in sync. The four of them burst through the exit and ran to where Natasha had a car waiting. In spite of not seeing anyone following them on the way to a small air strip on the outskirts of the city they made the transfer from the SUV to the plane Tony had sent as quickly as possible.

**You know what authors love? Reviews from people they don't know (and people they know) they REALLY DO MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND so please tell me what you think because sometimes****i feel like Britt30 is the only one who reads this. And she helped write it.**


	8. Space Squid!

**AN: he he he he I am so stinking excited to post this chapter. It is noticeably longer than all but chapter 3 and I'm REALLY excited to post this. It took us MONTHS to write this. If you count all the random conversations on the way to Seminary. Seriously Britt30 would not leave me alone until this was written. I wasn't doing it fast enough for her so she wrote her own version which I'll post if you guys want to read it. It's pretty hilarious. Anyway enjoy and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW. Here I'll make you a deal. You readers review and I'll post hilarious side stuff that Britt30 writes. Deal? Deal. Now quit reading this and read the story.**

**I don't own Marvel.**

On the flight over the Atlantic Steve tried to stay awake so he could talk to Bucky, but he fell asleep almost immediately after sitting down. He slept all the way to Stark Tower and didn't even wake up when Banner looked over him for broken bones and the like. No one found this extremely unusual, so they let him sleep. When Banner was looking him over he noticed a large black and purple spot on Steve's shoulder. No one worried about it since they all thought it was a bruise. It was still there several hours later when Bucky went to check if Steve was still asleep. It had been an awkward few hours for Bucky.

All of the others, of course, had wanted to know who he was exactly, where he'd been, if he was still with Hydra, and lots more annoying/uncomfortable questions.

Natasha and Sam had stuck up for him when the others were unsure whether to trust him or not. That didn't stop Tony from making annoying side comments about him. Bucky just stared at his friend asleep on the bed another wave of deja vu came over him, pre-serum Steve was always in and out of the hospital with one thing or another and Bucky had been there with him every time. Steve rolled onto his side, that bruise was still there. _That should have disappeared hours ago. _Nearly sixteen hours of sleep was plenty, Steve should have woken up by now. That, in combination with the bruise, is what prompted Bucky to go get Banner.

"There's something seriously wrong with Steve. But I can't find a mark on him except for that bruise," Banner said frustratedly. He turned to Sam. "What exactly happened in Serbia?"

"The only thing that happened that I was there for was this black cloud thing attacked Steve."

"Where did it first make contact?" Bucky asked sharply.

Sam considered for a moment. "His left shoulder." The exact spot where the stubborn mark sat.

"Did you overhear anything that might be useful? Did they say what the black cloud was for instance?" Natasha questioned.

"There was one guy, he was seriously terrified of the black cloud. He was yelling how even Hydra shouldn't meddle with time."

"How does a black cloud meddle with time?" Tony sounded skeptical.

"Don't look at me," Sam defended. "That's just what I heard him yelling."

"You're positive he said 'time'?" Bucky had to be certain.

"Yes." Sam confirmed, "How does that help?"

"Because I know someone who knows about time, and hopefully might know how to help."

"And is this person Hydra?" Now Clint was the one who sounded skeptical. Natasha glared at him, but he didn't look apologetic. "It's my job to be cautious about anonymous sources, no offense."

"None taken, and I assure you my friend isn't Hydra."

"You have friends?" Pepper punched Tony lightly on the arm. Bucky glowered at him.

"Just the two, and one of them," he pointed to Steve. "Is currently inexplicably unconscious on your couch, so if you're all done asking questions I need to make a call."

Natasha glared at everyone in the room daring someone to speak. No one did. She handed Bucky her phone.

"Err, thanks Natasha." He still wasn't quite sure how these things worked. To his relief she already pulled up the keypad, he typed in the number Arianna had given him.

"JARVIS put Nat's phone on speaker," Tony said.

Bucky glared at him but didn't object. The silence was loaded for a few seconds while the phone rang.

The line connected but no one spoke on the other end. "Ari?" Bucky asked tentatively "You said to call this number if I needed your help and-"

"почему ты звонишь" The voice was definitely Ari's

"You know my Russian is slipping Ari. And your accent need work as always, you still sound like a British person trying to speak Russian."

"It's not exactly my favorite language Barnes." She sounded irritated, with an edge to her voice Bucky couldn't yet place.

"Well now that you've established I'm not an imposter will you let me ask you something?"

"Go ahead." The bitterness in her voice escalated. "No wait let me guess." _She's definitely in a bad mood,_ Bucky decided. "Hydra has one of the stones and has some diabolical plan for it."

"No-"

"Or everyone in New York has suddenly started singing in Swahili at the same time because of an alien prank."

"No Ari listen-"

"Or if the Universe really hates me, someone was attacked by a black cloud that looked vaguely like a squid and has gone into an inexplicable coma due to a nasty looking bruise."

"Well…"

"WHAT!? Bucky please, please tell me that's not what happened."

"I'm sorry"

Arianna swore.

"What's wrong!?" Bucky demanded. "You never swear, you're freaking out and you sound like you've been crying. What's going on?!"

"I can't tell you right now. Not in your current company. And you might as well give up on the trace Stark, it's not going to work," she snapped.

Tony who had been not so sneakily trying to trace the call closed the program.

"Take a deep breath" Bucky said calmly

"Giving me my own advice now are we?" But she followed it anyway.

"Alright, details," she asked several deep breaths later. "Who was attacked and how long ago?"

"Steve and sixteen to twenty hours ago."

"Crap. I need to grab something give me a second." There was a loud pop and a grunt of pain. "Why must this thing be so difficult?" Arianna was muttering to herself, there was another loud bang. "Alright Bucky I'm coming now. It'd help if you put the phone somewhere on the floor."

"What? You're hundreds of miles away how are you going to-"

"Just do it."

"Fine." Placing the phone on the floor Bucky resumed his position by Steve.

One second the phone was sitting there looking completely innocent and helpless.

And the next Natasha was in need of a new phone. When the dust settled Arianna was standing exactly where the unfortunate phone had first thing that screamed something was wrong was her clothes. While she usually wore greens and browns everything she was wearing was black, the cloak and dress were more elaborate than anything else Bucky had ever seen her in. At a glance it appeared to simply be a floor length robe with exaggerated bell sleeves belted at the waist. Someone who stared at astronomy maps may have noticed that the embroidery on the skirt depicted major nebulae and planetary systems. The other thing different was that her usual crown of braids was gone,replaced by a single braid that fell to the back of her knees. Floating above her cupped hands was a perfectly spherical and brilliantly orange gem. Bucky was surprised by how small it was he had imagined it to be larger, instead it was barely an inch in diameter.

"Ari, what's wrong?"

"You're not going to let this go are you?"

"No I'm not, so go ahead and be vague if you have to, but give me something to go on."

She let out an angry huff. "I just found out my mentor has been dead for months, then I found out the US army has been snooping around in my mountains because they're chasing the remnants of SHIELD, and now this happens. So in short the future I actually liked is gone, the present is blowing up in my face, and now my past is back to haunt me."

"Your past? As in before you met your mentor. The part of your life you wouldn't tell me about."

"Exactly. So lets get this over with so I can go back to securing the integrity of my mountain and finding an outlet for all this pain that doesn't involve wanton destruction." Out of the corner of his eye Bucky noticed a glass on the counter was trembling, the contents swirling in its own personal tiny hurricane. At the end of Ari's short tirade the liquid froze over.

JARVIS hesitantly interrupted them. "Excuse me sir, but Mr. Odinson had returned and is waiting at the door."

Arianna's face blanched at the words and hurriedly turned away from the door trying desperately to maintain her fragile state of relative calm.

A muffled 'help' was audible from the other side of the door. Dr. Banner opened the door and let in Thor, who was carrying seven pizza boxes which blocked his view of the room.

"Where have you been big guy?" Tony said as he ran to take the top two boxes. "We sent you to get pizza over two hours ago."

"I apologize for my lateness, I was fascinated by the subway. I had a brief encounter with it in England and I found it intriguing."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Once Thor could see properly he raised an eyebrow at the black cloaked figure in the middle of the room. He thought it strange that the Captain's friend was talking to this mystery person, since the one armed man had hardly spoken a word the whole time he had been at the tower. "Who is this?"

"Barnes' magic goth friend who apparently knows how to help Capsicle."

"Enough with the wisecracks Stark," Clint chided as he grabbed another pizza box from Thor.

Arianna and Bucky's hushed conversation came to a close. As if it caused her physical pain Arianna turned to face Thor.

Thor blinked in confusion, he had definitely seen this face before. "Do I know you?"

"Probably not. This is the first time I've been out in years."

_Liar, _Bucky thought.

Thor didn't look entirely satisfied but he let the issue drop.

"Now about Steve…" Bucky said cautiously.

"Right sorry, Steve is who needs my attention right now." She spent less than thirty seconds examining the black mark on Steve's shoulder, never actually touching him, her grimace deepening by the second. "Why are you humans so annoyingly good at making my job harder…"

"Humans? Meaning you're not one?" Banner took off his glasses as he said this.

She moved onto searching for other black spots. "Not exactly. There's a possibility I'm half human. No one ever really knew where my father came from but it's a slim possibility." A tiny green light leaked from under her suddenly closed eyelids. "And here it comes...:"

"Where does your mother hail from?" Thor interjected the wheels in his mind had been turning he suspected he already knew the answer to his question.

Subtly she let the stone peek through her fingers. "Asgard." She stated this as if it were the weather. "So you've remembered who I am then."

Thor nodded scowling, his grip on Mjolnir tightened "So you've been hiding on Midgard all this time."

Ari scoffed. "Hiding? I prefer the term self inflicted banishment."

"Self-inflicted banishment implies that you have the option of return. Rest assured no such option exists." Thor grimaced a final time. "I disapprove but you certainly have the qualifications to aide the Captain if the problem is related to time."

"Good, because there's no one else on this planet or most of the universe who could save his life. Now if you could all do me a favor and move back, things are going to get very weird very soon."

"Anybody else have no clue what's going on?" Tony asked. Thor dragged him back and nodded towards Arianna to do her work. Bucky laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Be careful, 'kay?" She nodded and he retreated. Examining the wound closely, she mentally prepared herself for what was probably going to be extremely embarrassing. No one wants to have their darkest secrets displayed, especially when Tony Stark is a witness. Hopefully it was a different monster that had made it's home in Steve. She raised a finger and touched it gingerly.

Time literally slowed down. Immediately, a demon like, vaguely squid shaped, black entity burst from Steve's shoulder and hovered menacingly over Arianna who gazed at it unflinchingly. _Of course it's one of mine. How could it not be, _she thought bitterly to herself.

"_Who dares summon me? I am Power. I am Chaos. I am Darkness. I am-"_

"Wasting my time." Arianna finished its sentence. The monster was taken aback.

"_Who dares to interrupt me?! They shall be punished!"_

"The same person who summoned you, you moronic piece of chaos energy. And I'd rather like to see you try to punish me."

"_Ha!" _The creatures laugh was cold and humorless. "_None can oppose me! I was born out of the infinite schism of time and chaos!"_

"Really? No one? Not even your creator?" Arianna asked innocently fingering the time stone behind her back.

That got the creature's attention. "_What would a puny mortal like yourself know of the Queen of Darkness and Time?"_

She cringed at the name. The monster took this as a sign of fear.

"_You should be afraid! The Queen is the most powerful sorceress in all the cosmos. She is mightier than the Fates themselves, She-" _It would have gone on and on if she didn't put a stop to it.

"There's a reason I sent you on that wild goose chase collecting time energy. You were by far the thickest out of the lot."

"_What?"_

"I'm surprised at you Zandar. I'm even wearing black and you still didn't recognize me. Six-hundred years really shouldn't be that long for an eternal being of darkness."

"_...Queen Arethusa? What happened to the others? I haven't seen anyone in years! Why haven't you conquered the universe? What did you mean a wild goose chase?!"_

"I was made to see the error of my ways when a madman in a box destroyed my armies and gave me a choice, change or join my children of darkness. I chose to live." She assumed a mockingly amused expression. "As for the wild goose chase, I'm the possessor of the Time Stone; I have all the time energy I'll ever need."

The creature trembling with presumably fury. "Now we can either do this the easy way where you give Steve his energy back willingly and get sent back to the schism, or-"

"_You are a traitor to the cause of Evil!"_

"Really? I hadn't noticed."

Her creation let out a guttural screech. It swooped down upon her only to bounce off the orange force field that instantly enveloped Arianna. "I guess we're doing this the hard way," she muttered. Intending to turn the beast to dust she let a trickle of energy escape the stone and enclose it. Annoyingly the creature sucked up the energy and shot it right back at her, plus all the energy it had gathered in six hundred years. The blast of energy only slightly deterred by her forcefield threw her across the room. Within seconds Bucky was at her side helping her out.

"Are you alright?"

"No, I'm ticked off. Nothing's knocked me off me feet for centuries." Resolutely she took the stone in hand and charged back at the creature stopping a few feet in front of where it floated cackling maniacally.

"Oi! Space Squid!"

It looked down at her with insane loathing. "_Back for more?"_

"Oh you're gonna get it!" Simultaneously they release beams of energy at each other. The black and orange beams collided making the room look like a distorted nightmare version of Halloween.

Arianna was relying mainly on her own magic, barely dipping into the stone's resources. She didn't have the strength to keep this up much longer, but didn't want to use more of the stone's power.

_Why not? Why have you always been hesitant? _ The voice in her head was not her own, but her mother's. _Why do you fear its power dearest? _

_You know why Mother. Its power destroyed you and corrupted me. I won't let it do that again._

_It is your destiny to wield the stone, not to merely possess it._

_I can't do it. Not again._

_Yes you can. I believe in you dearest. You have a pure heart and strong foundations now. You can do this._

Arianna's magic levels were at an all time low. Another thirty seconds and she'd pass out from exhaustion. _Mother help me be strong._

_Always._

After centuries of resisting, Arianna let herself be submerged in the well of power. It was just as she remembered; her vision tinted everything gold, her enemy clear before her. The difference being that this time, it was Arianna that was in control and not the stone. The power flowed freely through her veins invigorating and restoring her magic. Using the stone's energy was like adding a fire hose to her usual little trickle of magic.

Zandar was pressed flat against the far wall. She stopped the relentless flow of energy, letting it flow through her like a circuit. Slowly the monster took it's squid like appearance again.

"_How?" _ it croaked "_You were terrified of that stone."_

"It just took a while to realize I could master it."

"_I suppose you're going to banish me now. Just wait until the others you banished to schism hear what you've become._

"Who said anything about the schism, peasant."

"_You said you'd send me back…"_

"That was before you attacked me. I'm sorry Zandar but you chose this." The stone glowed a fiery orange and projected a final beam of pure time energy at the monster.

"_Traitor," _she heard it whisper.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. The creature disintegrated into a pile of dust, which she magicked into a small vial.

"And so ends the last vestige of an era." Then she turned back to the others. They gaped at her with mouths wide open. Clint was the first to speak up.

"What did I just witness? You were an Evil Queen of Darkness?" She could feel herself blushing.

"It was a phase!" Everyone laughed and Tony spoke up.

"Alright everyone! Let's eat some pizza while we wait for Capsickle here to wake up. He'll be fine now right?"

"He should be."

"Great. Let's eat."

The Avengers (plus Ari and Bucky), spread throughout the floor. Clint and Natasha curled up on the couch (after checking with Bucky to make sure he was ok), Bruce and Tony were trying to figure out the science of what they had just seen, and Thor kept trying to join their conversation. Arianna and Bucky awkwardly retired to Steve's bed side where he continued to sleep. His bruise was now gone.

"Thanks for coming Arianna," Bucky told her.

"You're welcome. I know how much he means to you."

"I'm sorry to hear about your friend." He fingered the hem of her sleeve. "This new look is kind of scaring me." She chuckled darkly.

"When Sif told me, it took all the self-control built up over the centuries to not go off on a rampage, but I had to do something, so I dug this out of a reality well where I stashed a lot of my things from my," she made air quotes with her fingers. "Evil Queen of Darkness days. I'm calling it a compromise. No one dies, nothing gets destroyed and I still get to express how miserable I currently feel."

Bucky awkwardly patted her on the shoulder.

"I just wish I knew-" She perked up as she realized something. "Thor!"

The Asgardian prince turned away from his conversation with Natasha to answer her . "Yes?" he answered warily.

"I need to ask you something." It was difficult to finish the question. "How did your brother perish?"

Thor's face turned to sadness. "My brother perished helping us defend Midgard and the rest of the cosmos from the Dark Elves."

The rest of the Avengers who had all adopted angry expressions at the mention of Loki now looked shell shocked.

"Hold up." Tony pointed an accusing piece of pizza at Thor. "Your brother the nutcase who attacked our planet is not only dead, by the way thanks for telling us that small detail, but died doing something not evil?"

"He wasn't always evil you know," Arianna said with a quiet fury somehow managing not to turn Tony into a squirrel. "How exactly did he die?"

"He was stabbed through the heart."

"But that doesn't make any sense!"

"No, what doesn't make sense is why you care." Clint said through a mouth full of pizza. "Why should you care? Did you know him or something?"

Ari was either lucky or very unlucky in that moment. On the one hand she wouldn't have to continue this conversation. On the other, the rainbow colored pillar of light crashing down next to Steve's bed probably wasn't a good sign. The Captain woke with a start and looked around the room in confusion. The portal faded and two Asgardian guards stood in its place.

"Oh no. What now- HEY!" They grabbed Arianna roughly and the portal enveloped them again. When it dissipated, they were all gone. Cap rubbed his eyes blearily.

"What did I miss?"

**AN: *Maniacal laughter* Remember the deal! Review and you'll be treated to the parody version of this scene.**


	9. The moment we've been waiting for

**AN: Hi! you would've had this sooner had ff decided to let me upload the chapter... Anyway this chapter doesn't feel quite right to me but I'm lazy and I think its good enough so sorry not sorry.**

The gateway of the bifrost was packed with guards, they had seen the destruction the witch had done during the war on time. They had underestimated her once, they would not do so now. "I have her!" Heimdall called over the mutterings of the guards. The vortex opened and out stumbled Stig who had a death grip on Arianna's wrist with one gloved hand, the Time Stone in the other. Arianna was trying and failing to get take it back, he was too tall and her measly attack did nothing to help her cause. _I really need to learn how to fight. _ Then the burly guard did something unexpected. _DID HE JUST THROW ONE OF SIX INFINITE POWER SOURCES LIKE A BASEBALL!? _Arianna stopped struggling to watch in horror as the stone flew through the air and was caught by guard standing ready in one of Asgard's airships. She listened in stunned silence as orders were shouted to take the infinity gem to the all-father and the witch to be taken to the dungeons.

Arianna was usually a peaceful person never really referring to violence to solve her problems much preferring to think her way out of them. Not today. It was her task to protect that stone and she wasn't going to let it get away from her. The surrounding guards were slowly advancing on her, their weapons drawn. "You're fools, the lot of you." She made a smirk that sent chills down the back of anyone who had the mispleasure of guarding Loki. Her eyes held the same malice that promised pain, except now there was no magic blocking force field keeping them safe.

One of the braver (or foolish) guards shouted "Get her!" and charged. A millisecond before reaching her a wave of energy flew out from her, throwing all of them, Heimdall included, into the walls. By the time they regained the ability to stand she was gone.

"All-Father!" The guard holding the Time Stone clenched in his gloved fist burst into the throne room interrupting a routine meeting.

"Yes, what is it?" Odin sounded bored, not looking up from the report he had been studying.

"Sir, we've retrieved the Time Stone and the witch is in custody."

"WHAT?!" Odin leapt to his feet. "When?!"

"Mere minutes ago my Liege."

"This meeting will have to be postponed until further notice." Odin addressed the council members as he was walking to the door. "And you," he pointed to the guard "give me the stone and then I want the witch brought to me. I wish to question her."

"Oh that won't be necessary All-Father." Ari's voice rang from the throne where she was seated with her feet hanging over the armrest. Odin's face blanched when he saw who was occupying his throne. "However the rest of you will need to leave." She turned her dagger-like gaze onto the unfortunate guard. "I'll be taking that back now," magiking the Time Stone out of his grasp and into her open palm.

The council members stood where they were not wanting to leave their king with the witch. "Go," Odin commanded them. "I can handle this."

"Yes do go and hurry up about it." She lazily flicked her hand in the direction of the door. When they still didn't move she sighed irritably and said "I swear on my honor as a keeper of an infinity stone that I won't harm your precious king." With one more glare from Odin they finally left.

Ari stood up from the throne and sauntered down the stairs, saying sweetly "Now that they're out of the way..." she threw a blast of magic at Odin's feet causing him to fall backwards her demeanor doing a one eighty in an instant. "Who are you and what have you done with the real Odin?" She walked to the window and peered curiously out. "Not that I care mind you, several centuries later and the thought of him still makes me scowl."

The Odin imposter got to his feet lithely and smirked "Still perceptive as ever Aria."

Now it was her turn to go white as a sheet as she whirled to stare incredulously at him. She approached him cautiously until they were only a few feet apart. "Only one person calls me that and he's dead." She whispered. Odin's face shimmered with a golden glow and was replaced with Loki grinning like the God of Mischief he was. The fire in Arianna's eyes would have terrified any sane person. "Prove you're him!" she commanded.

Respecting her obvious anger Loki dropped the smirk and the spell that hid Arianna's ring on his finger. That was all the proof she needed. Closing the distance between them she pulled him closer and rose to her tiptoes kissing him fiercely. When they eventually broke apart she seriously considered slapping him but decided that would be too cliche. "Oh I've missed you. So much."

"And I you." he murmured, kissing her gently.

She broke the kiss and glared at him. "Then WHY did you stay away? What happened? I mean you attacked Earth!" her voice was growing louder "Why did you do it? Why didn't you ever come back? AND HOW IN HELHEIM COULD YOU LET ME THINK YOU WERE DEAD?!"

Loki looked at her with those beautiful green eyes. There was more sadness, anger and pain in them since the last time she'd seen him. Especially pain. She cupped his face in her hand. "What happened to you?" she whispered her voice breaking with emotion.

"Many things Aria, I'm not the same man I once was but I hope in time you'll forgive me and understand. I'll tell you everything, but not here, too many ears and I fear your yelling my have attracted the attention of the guard."

"Where then?" she asked impatiently.

"Let me deal with the guards and then we'll go." His appearance morphed back to Odin's he conversed with the assembled assortment of guards, council members and warriors gathered at the door for a moment before beckoning Arianna over. "Don't speak." he whispered to her. The group moved down the hall in the direction she knew the dungeons to be in. When they turned a corner Odin and the time witch continued with the crowd while two nondescript persons went the other way.

**So what'd you think? Let me know! I really want to know what you think and thanks so much to everyone who is reviewing you're awesome. Also spoof chapters yay or nay?**


	10. Tall Buildings Suck

**AN: So this is ONE of the spoofs that britt30 wrote. I might have 1 maybe 2 more chapters prewritten so updates will be a little shaky. By the way this is from an earlier point in time when I wasn't going to include the infinity stones or Loki at all and go for a more Doctor who ish reason for the pyschicness.**

_Arianna led the way up the rope ladder and into the room. He was surprised to see it full of people sitting in a circle. They all looked like they felt a bit out of place. _

"_Don't be shy Barnes. Take a seat and we'll get started." Unsure of what to do, Bucky took a seat next to an old man with a long gray beard. He fingered his knife nervously._

"_Well, I'm glad we're all here finally. Most of you are probably wondering what this place is and why you're here. This is Free-Falls Anonymous. We're a group dedicated to helping you get over your PTSD of falling from high places. Now, let's start by introducing ourselves. I'll go first. My name is Arianna and I'm a psychic. I fell into the time vortex as a child thus the psychicness." _

_The group chorused back, "Hi Arianna."_

"_Um… Gandalf, why don't you go first and then we'll go clockwise."_

"_Oh, um, yes. I am Gandalf the Grey and I'm a wizard. I fell from a cliff into a pit of lava while fighting a Balrog."_

"_Hi Gandalf," said everyone except Bucky. _

_Suddenly Bucky realized it was his turn._

"_I'm Bucky. I'm an ex-assassin. I fell from a train on cliff into a nightmare." I'm still in one, Bucky thought._

_They continued around the circle to a girl named Amy and her husband Rory, a condescending man named Sherlock, amongst a few others, and ended with a man dressed in black and green leather._

"_Hello. I am Loki, ex-Prince of Asgard and I'm a Jotun. I, ahem, fell from the edge of my world into space." His face suddenly got pale and he looked like he was remembering a bad dream. "It was a long fall." Arianna patted his hand consolingly._

"_There, there. We're all friends here. Now today we'll be starting with the basics and talking about why we're so scared of heights. Eventually we'll move to the zipline and then skydiving. Now, let's get into partnerships and practice some trust falls." Several people winced at the word fall. Amy and Rory obviously we're together and Gandalf got stuck with Sherlock. The only people left were Bucky and Loki. Loki sighed heavily and approached the ex-assassin. _

"_It appears we're partners." Loki said. Bucky just glared at him. _

"_I don't do partners." Loki smirked, then glanced down at his arm and the knife it was holding._

"_You any good with that knife?" Bucky looked at him challengingly._

"_Better than most." He paused then asked, "Why?" Loki shrugged._

"_I'd say the same thing about myself. Want to spar sometime?" Though reluctant as he was to make friends, Bucky was a little out of practice._

"_Sure." _


	11. What Could Have Happenednot

Spoilers for 3x01 or AoS ahead! ye have been warned

Hello readers! So I'm a terrible author and have left you abandoned for a few months now. basically I have no idea what to do with this story now well I have Ideas but not how to get there. So I was wondering what are your ideas?Mine include.

have Ari and Loki get married disguised as Thor and Sif because that would be hilarious

have Ari and Bucky show up and tell stop Fitz from having a psychotic breakdown and they go get Jemma (This will not happen… except as a spoof

basically rewrite AoU with Ari and Loki cuz they're kinda invested in the infinity stones and would be interested to know that the mind stone is a person now, also because I feel like Ari and Wanda could be buddies.

As you can tell these are so so and borderline make sense if that, so I wanna know what your ideas are. In the meantime I hate it when authors post a new 'chapter' without any actual story content so without further adieu I present Britt30's version of the scene with the space squid which was the pinnacle point of this story that I plotted out for months and was the first thing that came to my mind. Actually no that a lie, this story was born from a dream I had where Bucky met a psychic who lived in a tree (like in my side of the mountain) and then I thought about how Bucky trained Natasha and then I became re-obsessed with Loki and what if Loki had had someone he taught magic and mischief to, that person would be awesome and then I don't even remember how the infinity gems got drug into this… Oh yeah Guardians of the Galaxy came out… anyway. Without Further Adieu, (for real this time)

SPACE SQUID!

"Anybody else have no clue what's going on?" Tony asked. Thor dragged him back and nodded towards Arianna to do her work. Bucky laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Be careful, kay?" She nodded and he retreated. Examining the wound closely, she began the painstaking preparations to summon the monster that had made it's home in Steve. She raised a finger and poked it.

Immediately, a demon like, vaguely squid shaped, black entity burst from Steve's shoulder and hovered menacingly over Arianna who gazed at it unflinchingly.

"_Who dares summon me? I am Power. I am Chaos. I am Darkness. I am-"_

"Fluffy McDoodlekins! What do you have to say for yourself?" Arianna asked the space squid sternly. The monster was taken aback.

"_There is only one who knows me by that name. Mother?"_

"Hello son. Care to explain to me why you attacked this young man?"

"_Well, you see-"_

"I thought you were mature enough, Fluffy. Mature enough to explore the universe without me having to make sure you didn't kill anyone."

"_But Mother, I-"_

"No buts mister. You have no excuse to attack St-"

"_Mother, I'm a communist." _Shocked silence filled the room as Arianna sought a reply.

"A-a communist?" The vaguely squid shaped entity nodded its vaguely squid shaped head.

"_You heard right Mother. I picked up on some Russian radio signals in the 40s and they just stuck. I'm sorry you had to find out this way."_

"So that's why you attacked Steve," Arianna said disgustedly.

"_He's everything I despise Mother," proclaimed Fluffy, bolstering his wavy black tentacles. "And he tasted delicious." _Arianna shook her head in shame. All her hard work, and this was what her finest creation turned out to be.

"I'm sorry it's come to this Fluffy." She raised the time stone and it hovered in front of her outstretched hand. "But you've become a danger to others. And freedom." Fluffy's tentacles waved in distress.

"_You're destroying me? After everything? I am your darkest creation! I am your anger and hate!_

"_I am you!" _Ari heard the shocked gasps behind her and the subtle sound of gliding metal as Bucky clenched his fist.

"And now it's time to let that part of me go."

"_I don't believe this," _said Fluffy McDoodlekins.

"You better believe it, peasant. _**Dårlige kommunistiske plass blekksprut HAI!" **_The stone glowed a firey orange and projected a beam of pure time energy at the monster.

"_I'm sorry Mother." _she heard it whisper.

"I'm sorry too," she whispered back. The squid seemed to fold in on itself until it was no bigger than a dust mote. The stone slowly cooled down and dropped back into her palm. Arianna pocketed it and stretched out her hand to catch the dust mote, that was trying to fly away in vain. It blinked it's tiny demon eyes.

"_Mama?"_ Arianna smiled gently, pulled a vial from her pocket, and dumped the mote inside. Using the time stone, she opened a little pocket and stuck the vial inside.

"Sleep well darling." Then she turned back to the others. They gaped at her with mouths wide open. Clint was the first to speak up.

"Fluffy McDoodlekins? Really?" She could feel herself blushing.

"It was a phase!" Everyone laughed and Tony spoke up.

"Alright everyone! Let's eat some pizza while we wait for Capsickle here to wake up. He'll be fine now right?"

"He should be."

"Great. Let's eat."

The Avengers (plus Ari and Bucky), spread throughout the floor. Clint and Natasha curled up on the couch (after checking with Bucky to make sure he was ok), Bruce and Tony were trying to figure out the science of what they had just seen, and Thor kept trying to join their conversation. Arianna and Bucky awkwardly retired to Steve's bed side where he continued to sleep. His bruise was now gone.

"Thanks for coming Arianna," Bucky told her.

"You're welcome. I know how much he means to you."

"I'm sorry to hear about your friend. This new look is kind of scaring me." She chuckled, though she was dying inside.

"That's the point. I just wish I knew-" They were interrupted by a rainbow colored pillar of light crashing down next to Steve's bed. The Captain woke with a start and looked around the room in confusion. The portal faded and two Asgardian guards stood in its place.

"Oh no. What now- HEY!" They grabbed Arianna roughly and the portal enveloped them again. When it dissipated, they were all gone. Cap rubbed his eyes blearily.

"What did I miss?"

DON'T FORGET TO GIVE ME IDEAS BECAUSE I REALLY AM NOT COMING UP WITH ANYTHING DECENT AND MANY BRAINS ARE BETTER THAN ONE. AND HAVE A FANTASTIC DAY!


End file.
